Last night we ventured out for Lois’ sister-in-law’s grandmother’s 80th birthday. Did you follow that?
We call her Grandma Muriel and she reminded me that her actual birthday is the 23rd and that would be a perfect birthday for our baby boy!

It was the first time I was actually nervous about being over an hour away from the hospital. I made sure we had the hospital bag in the car and I think Lo thought I was nuts.

We stopped at her cousin’s house on the way to meet their new baby boy who is not even 2 weeks old. I kept looking at this little peanut of an infant and it was so unreal to think that the same size thing was in my belly. The foot that is poking at my right ride and ribcage is this little foot that is attached to a real live baby. This whole thing is still somewhat hard to grasp.

Dinner was wonderful and our large group took over the Ruby.Tuesdays in Fishkill. I think many of the women wanted to take our adorable waiter home (even though I don’t think he was interested in the women) and there was even some showing of skin for tattoo comparisons before the night was over. I refrained from this activity out of courtesy for the other restaurant patrons.

So, we’ve made it to 38 weeks.

And I finally took the belly shot I promised.

I’m feeling every pull and poke and ache recently. I’m definitely waddling more and walking a little like a heavyset old man. I’m not miserable but there are things that are getting slightly annoying.

I told Lo last night that I think going to the bathroom is becoming more of an event because it’s getting hard to wipe. Sorry for the TMI, but there’s more… I also am finding the discharge is getting pretty gross. I haven’t lost my plug but it’s definitely increased in amount and…um….odor. When I said something to Lo about my explanation of the scent (wet hay – so gross), her eyes got really wide and she said that was the same reference that someone told her about for the scent of amniotic fluid. I think I almost sent her into a panic that I was going into labor already.

We’re hanging in there. I think Shmoo is getting the sense that things are changing. He’s being Mr. Test-Everything recently and the battles are exhausting. All day long, we have battles. It starts with “I want soda” as soon as he gets up and temper tantrums when he doesn’t get it. I’m determined to get through this part and we’ve had many a time out again recently.

I almost laugh when he gets disciplined by one of us and then through the tears asks for his other mommy. When the other mommy comes and continues the discipline, he then asks for Mema and Pop-Pop.

Still not potty trained. Not even close. I think we were closer 6 months ago than we are now. sigh.

I promise to keep everyone updated on the labor/delivery situation. I’m hoping for next weekend. Feel free to make any last minute entries in the baby guessing game.

We’ve settled down a little from the initial panic of this baby coming at any moment.

My protein is fine and my blood work came back fine. I’m on track to go back in to the OB on Thursday for the next appointment. I’m not feeling so hot with a fresh cold and some nausea, but I really would like to make it to Thursday for work reasons.

Lo went into full gear yesterday as we were yanked out of our denial. She got the bassinet ready and it’s in our room. The changing table is now in Shmoo’s room. He feels the need to try to climb into both – which neither one can hold a climbing 35 lb toddler. We did change his pull-up on the changing table yesterday and I think the novelty of the new furniture is wearing off already.

Shmoo did have a cute moment this morning when he discovered the bottles and helped Lo get a bottle of milk ready for the baby. (we’re not going to tell him that it’s not really for the baby but for momma’s coffee, but it was sweet nonetheless).

We’re hanging in. I’ll make Lo take a belly shot of me today. We have some plans most of the afternoon and I’m debated staying home if I’m not feeling 100%. We’ll see.

This could happen soon. Or it could be another 2 weeks or so. I don’t like unknowns. I guess this is just one of many things totally outside of my control.

I had a seven hour conference call at work today. It was necessary but just made me think about all of the other things I could have been doing at work. I had about 12 minutes from when I got off the call to get my self together to get out the door and make it to an OB appointment.

And the OB appointment threw me for a loop.

I am 1 centimeter dilated.

But the big story of the day is that my abnormally low blood pressure is high. They took it twice and then did blood work. It’s pretty unusual since my BP is usually pretty low.

The nurse who usually does the blood work had gone for the day because they only had one or two patients left and didn’t think they’d need her. Of course, I go and throw everyone for a loop. The poor nurse who had to take my blood seemed nervous and had to try a few times to get something going. I joked with her that I have always been told I have terrible veins for blood collection and we somehow got through it.

They’ll call me tomorrow with the results from the blood test. But as I scheduled my next appointment for next Thursday, the nurses joked that I may not make it to my next appt. and the doctor asked if our hospital bag was packed.

I think I sent Lo into a panic when I relayed all of this to her on the phone. I was more worried about all of my loose ends at work. But I did get her into high gear to get some things out of the attic including the car seat base, the swing and the bassinet.

I also think I might start making sure that the hospital bag is in the car with me when I head to work.

I am not panicked about the high blood pressure thing yet. I don’t seem to have any other symptoms of preeclampsia. My protein was normal and I don’t have any of the headaches or other issues associated with it. I am getting Braxton Hicks a lot and this kid is just moving around a ton.

\I haven’t dropped at all but my mother reminded me that she never did with us either. I don’t think Lo dropped either. Maybe she dropped like an hour before she went into labor.

I need to go work tomorrow but I’ll keep my cell on to see what the doc says. I feel a little nauseous tonight but I’m not going to look to far into it. I don’t think it’s going to happen in the next day or so, but I also think I’m not going to make it to Thanksgiving.

I will make Lo take a belly shot of me tonight or tomorrow before work so I have one last one before the big day!

I am sitting at my kitchen table debating going to work today. It’s supposed to be a floating holiday that we can choose in advance if we want to take. I didn’t choose it but I also didn’t take Good Friday, Presidents’ Day and Columbus Day off either, so I think I deserve this one.

I’m trying to reschedule a meeting and get my head around all of the chaos that needs to be made un-chaotic before my maternity leave. Better just to ignore it all for a day, right?

Shmoo is sitting across the table from me playing with tape. Yep, tape. (I told him we were out of glue). I currently have about 12 pieces of tape on a plastic cup, a magazine and the kitchen table. We’ve already dumped out the toy bag, rearranged the trunk in the living room (filled with videos and stuff), we’ve unraveled the roll of project paper across the kitchen floor, we’ve dumped the backpack filled with matchbox cars, cut up strips of construction paper, strewn some balloons about and just now moved onto pealing clementines.

We’ve already had 3 lengthy meltdowns today consisting of:

1. Wanting his “Chick” mack truck (from Cars) that he lent to a friend 3 months ago
2. Wanting to go to the library to play with Thomas (libraries are closed today and he has his own Thomas train table)
3. Wanting to go to Mema and Pop-Pop’s house because he’s convinced his missing garbage truck is there.

He climbed out of bed completely happy and then the “chick mack” meltdown started about 3 minutes later. Not sure what sparked it but nothing starts out a morning like spending 40 minutes trying to calm down a hysterical toddler who feels like the world is coming to an end if he doesn’t get his toy and he doesn’t care if the neighbors want to sleep in.

It’s chaos like this that makes me wonder how I can even think work is chaotic at all. It also makes me wonder what our home looked like before Shmoo. It must have been rather boring.

This lack of blogging thing is getting ridiculous. I can’t believe that I haven’t just put aside the time to blog. Sad, isn’t it?

We’re a little over 2 weeks away from the official due date and I might still be in denial that this is really going to happen. I mean, I’m not really in denial, I’m just not ready yet.

We’ve made some progress towards getting ready for this baby and even had a small baby shower thrown for us by family members. We rearranged Shmoo’s room and got him a big boy bed to prepare for the baby’s furniture going into the bedroom. But we haven’t got the car seat installed, haven’t found the bassinet pieces for the pack n’ play, haven’t taken the regular bassinet out of the attic, haven’t put the hospital bag in the car, haven’t done a lot of things.

Whatever. We’ll just handle everything when it happens.

I’m feeling okay. I’ve had some Braxton.Hicks in the past few days. Nothing too consistent, just a little annoying. I’m definitely getting more uncomfortable and sleeping isn’t easy. The reflux can get pretty bad and make me sick, but I’ve completely given up on changing what I’m eating to avoid it – I think it’s really irrelevant.

I’m starting to worry about Lo, I think. She is not good in emergency situations and tends to panic. She’s been voicing her concerns about not being helpful when I am ready to deliver and she’s stepped up her concerns a little lately.

This past Saturday, we spent 2 hours in church for her niece’s confirmation. I was incredibly uncomfortable and this little boy was pushing into my rib cage with his foot and pushing up on my lungs with his butt, then the Braxton.Hicks started. I think I was trying to push him down and breathe while sitting in this hard wooden pew. Lo got nervous and kept asking if I was okay. “Yes, I’m fine. I would just like to breathe or swallow normally.”

The topic came up again the next day when we had friends over for Lo’s birthday (42!). Lo said that my labor may not be as quick as hers (pretty much 4 hours start to finish) and we might have several hours with me at home laboring before we even go to the hospital. The funny part is that Lo is not worried about me, she’s worried about what she will do during that time.

We need to put together a basket of “goodies” that includes handheld games, candy, some time waster things, etc. for Lo, not for me. I do think she’s going to be okay when it comes down to it, but it cracks me up to think that I may be in labor and trying to calm her down.

Not much else going on here. I feel pretty big but people are telling me that I look pretty good (bunch of liars). I am up to a size 11 in shoes and once I found a pair of Merrell.clogs about 2 weeks ago, I put them on and have not taken them off since. I’ve gained 16 lbs total so far (not for lack of trying). It all appears to be baby. I wasn’t a lightweight when I started, so I’m even hoping that I’m in better shape post-pregnancy than I was pre-pregnancy.

Work is still a little nuts and it doesn’t help that my motivation level is about a zero. I’m supposed to be preparing a litigation document this morning (which I never am involved with) and figured that writing a blog entry was a much better way to utilize my time.

My last official work day is Friday, November 20th, 7 days before the due date. I’m hoping to actually be organized and ready to be done with work by then. It’s funny that I think my boss is in deeper denial than I am that I’m leaving. As I’m trying to wrap things up, he keeps coming in my office with new tasks. I might throw something at him the next time he comes in here. Something big and heavy.

I promise to take a belly shot in the next 24 hours. And I promise, promise, promise to write now every day (ok, maybe every other day).

We’re in the home stretch now! Can’t wait to meet this baby boy!

Along with being a bad blogger, I’m not the best photo-taker of my Shmoo lately either.

Here’s one of his new room arrangement. Any mommy with a toddler will notice that the nightstand in this picture is not placed in the smartest of positions and a toddler may climb up on it in an attempt to climb on the bookshelf. Yep, didn’t take us (or should I say, didn’t take Shmoo) long to figure that one out and plan for another furniture shift.

And one of a tired little lion at a morning Halloween party. He was not happy about putting the costume on but once the trick or treating started, I think he was more accepting of the role as “Simba” the lion.

I am 34+ weeks and going through a slight bout of shock that this is all happening fairly soon. I keep thinking that we have all the time in the world to get things together, then I look at the calendar and realize that I can start stressing out now.

It’s funny how we were so over prepared for Shmoo’s arrival months in advance. We are now weeks away from Shmoo’s baby brother gracing us with his presence and we have done pretty much nothing.

To be fair, Lo was on bedrest with Shmoo, so we had this thing hanging over our head that he could arrive any day. We had the room painted, crib set up, clothes ready, bassinet ready, car seat installed, etc. probably 2 months before he arrived. Now, we are potentially 5 weeks away and we have done…well….nothing.

That’s not totally true. This weekend, we did take a bag of clothes out of the attic with some newborn and 0-3 stuff. I want to move a bookshelf in Shmoo’s room, bring down the changing table and the bassinet and get the car seat from our friend that borrowed it. I am determined to do that this upcoming weekend. We’ll see.

It doesn’t mean that we’re not as excited for this child, right? We’re just slightly preoccupied?

I go through a daily ritual at work lately where I sit down and look at all of the files in my office, fully aware of the fact that I need to draft summaries of everything for whatever unfortunate soul in the firm will get my chaos when I go into labor. Then, I feel overwhelmed and find something else to work on, avoiding the inevitable. The next 2-3 weeks at work are going to be harried. Oh well.

I’m trying to keep my stress levels low but work is stretching the limits of my patience. Then, we have other issues going on:

1. Kaden’s surgery will be coming up in 2 weeks
2. We’re trying to refinance to help ourselves out financially and are currently anxiously awaiting the appraisal results to find out if our last option is really even an option
3. My parents are going through some financial stress that has put my brother and I in gear to try to help them sort things out, including moving some bodies around to make things work (long story)
4. My mother and I have switched cars back (a product of their financial pressure) leaving us with a car payment again that we haven’t had in over 18 months
5. We’ve given up all hope of getting Lo’s parents to come around and speak to her brother (and his family, including grandchildren) again. It’s becoming bad.
6. My mother and Lo’s sister-in-law are throwing a small baby shower (sprinkle) for us (even though we really don’t need anything) and Lo’s mother won’t attend since she has issues with at least one or two people who are invited. (At least Lo’s extended family will get to attend this one unlike the Shmoo’s shower which was another family issue made possible by, yet again, my mother-in-law)

The good news is that if the refi goes through and I cancel my XM radio (along with eliminating another monthly expense), Lo is letting me get an i.Phone for being such a good baby cooker. We’re both currently using cell phones that are both so antiquated and on their way out that I can only seem to charge mine in the car (and it doesn’t have Bluetooth or a camera in it) and Lo only can charge hers at home. Both phones lose battery power after about 3 calls and we’ve been too cheap to buy new batteries knowing that we’d replace them soon.

Phew.

That’s what’s new with us. Is it enough?

I will update on the Shmoo as soon as possible.

And because I made you all sit through reading all of that crap, here’s the ever important belly shot…

Me at 34 weeks!

I read the book Belly*Laughs by Jenny*McCarthy in about an hour and a half on the train to NYC Tuesday. Now, I’m not a fan of hers by any stretch, but I found the book amusing. What’s funny is that I could really associate with a lot of the things she talked about.

It also made us realize how many things I have with my pregnancy that Lo didn’t have with hers.

Now, before I start, let me just say that I do believe pregnancy is really an amazing, beautiful and wonderful thing. I’m very thankful that I have the ability to experience this and we are very blessed to have our second healthy baby boy on the way.

That being said, there are some realities of pregnancy that need to be talked about. If you don’t want to hear about it or don’t need to know about the non-pretty details of pregnancy, move on to another blog.

Many of my straight girlfriends tell me how lucky I am to have a spouse who has gone through pregnancy and can be totally empathetic while their husbands have no idea what it’s like. I guess that can be twofold. Lo does know about some of the rough patches of pregnancy, but the other thing is that if I have a symptom that she didn’t have, she probably just thinks I’m being whiney and wussy. (Not that she’s actually verbalized it, but I’m pretty sure she’s thinking it from time to time.)

Now, Lo did have that whole incompetent cervix thing and 8 weeks of strict bed rest. That sucked. She also had morning sickness for 7 weeks where she threw up all the time and she endured heartburn for most of the pregnancy. Oh yeah, she also got through the back labor and tornado-like delivery without any drugs when she was 100% sure she wanted drugs.

In short, I really can’t complain about much.

But I definitely have some different things going on.

Morning sickness

My morning sickness didn’t actually involve much puking. I was just in a constant state of total nausea. I really wished I could throw up. I kept thinking I would feel better if I threw up. For someone who abhors puking, I was begging for the ability to just throw up and feel better. How come when Lo had morning sickness, she could puke and get right back to life and eating normal foods. Totally not fair.

Stretch marks

Lo does not have one stretch mark. I searched. I find that unfair. I, on the other hand, have all kinds of skin things going on. I have a bumpy rash on my sides, I have a weird totally unattractive grouping of stretch marks directly below my belly button and I’m pretty sure there are many more places that look horrific, but I’m not going to look too hard.

Swelling

Now, I don’t appear swollen yet. I remember when my 5 foot nothing sister gained 50 lbs or so when she had her son and her little size 6 feet looked like Fred*Flintstone’s. I think my feet, ankles and hands all still appear normal, but appearance can fool a pregnant girl.

My wedding band is almost too tight. I debate putting it on every day for fear of not being able to take it off. I often take it off at work while I’m typing just so I don’t feel uncomfortable.

My feet have grown. Again, they don’t appear swollen, but my comfortable shoes are very, very tight. This really hit a critical point last week when I wore my Crocs to the car, drove to work, then put on a pair of brown flats that were in my car. They felt a wee bit tight, but I had no other choice. The 2 blocks from the parking garage to my office was like enduring a ½ marathon stilettos.

I wore my Lands_End all weather moccasin shoes for the remainder of the week – I can’t even fit into my favorite Franco_Sarto shoes. This weekend, Lo found me a pair of shoes at Payless that look a little like shoes my grandmother owns, with a little extra support. They should be fine for work, but the scary thing is that they are size 11!

I’ve had a tough time my whole life finding shoes in a size 10, what will I do if I will now be a size 11 until the end of time? What are the chances that my height will spike up 3-4 more inches so I can at least be proportionately as tall as my shoe size depicts?

Hip pain and Muscle cramps

Do I need to even explain this? As you may remember, I had hip pain very early on in the pregnancy, like weeks into it. I have felt pretty good for some time, but it has returned. I am going back to the exercises I did back then (yes, that I should have been doing all along). And I’m trying to find some sleeping comfort with the body pillow.

I still have the prenatal yoga DVD in the living room. I have not used it yet. Not even once. It is occurring to me that my body is 8 weeks away from delivering a baby and these aches and pains will only get worse as the baby gains ½ lb per week. Hence, START THE YOGA YOU LAZY ASS!

Charlie horse pains have returned as well. I can’t honestly remember even in my life having a Charlie Horse before now. I mean, I’ve done a lot of things to my body, played competitive sports, broken bones, pulled muscles, sprained all kinds of things, etc. A Charlie Horse hurts. It really fucking hurts at 3:00 am when you are barely awake and decide to just slowly stretch out that leg that is starting to cramp. Then, that Charlie Horse hits your calf like a freight train and you try your best to massage it vigorously (if you can comfortably reach your calf) and not wake up your sleeping partner. It usually involves jumping out of bed and trying to “walk it off” without making too much of a ruckus to wake up everyone else in the house.

Crotch pain and vaginal discharge

TMI for most people, I know. But for the love of all things, how come nobody talks about this. None of my girlfriends warned me about (a) constantly feeling like your uterus is falling out of your crotch or (b) vaginal discharge.

I’ve had to google some things to make sure I didn’t have some crazy ass pregnancy symptoms that meant something horrible.

Crankiness

I don’t think I’ve been especially cranky lately, but I definitely feel a little more selfish than normal. For example, when we went to Sesame_Place for our little family adventure, Lo wanted to share a car with our friend, S and her 3 yr old K. I was adamant that I wanted to have our own car, for comfort and just convenience, I guess. I don’t really know WHY it was such a big deal to me, but it was.

Lo didn’t get why I was being such a princess about it and she was adamant about the money we’d save on gas and tolls (ahem, I drive a hybrid that gets 45 mpg and S’s car got probably around 22). Anyway, Lo won out and I just felt cranky and miserable about the whole thing since we didn’t have any family time alone together (we shared a hotel room with them too). Apparently, my crankiness showed and I must have just come across as a bitch all weekend.

I don’t think that Lo considers being pregnant an excuse for being bitchy. I’m working on this one.

Boobs

Your girlfriends will all warn you that your boobs will get bigger, sometimes exponentially bigger. Hell, this is no surprise, everyone knows that pregnant women gain extra boobage. What people don’t tell you is what your boobs may look like.

Again, Lo didn’t have any major issues in this area. I seem to have gotten all of the things that come with growing boobs. Hers got larger and remained, well, pretty.

Mine are not pretty. Let’s just say that most of my adult life, I’ve worn a 32 or 34C bra. (It may have gone into 36 during the law school years). I bought a bra a few days ago that was a 40D. And, I probably could have gone bigger.

In addition to the size, I also have an issue with the growing nipples. The McCarthy book actually may have coined the perfect analogy with the term “burnt pancakes”. Yep, that’s what pregnant lady nipples may look like.

On top of that, nipples can and may get harder. This makes it sometimes difficult to find the right shirt to wear out in public. Catch my drift?
You need the right mix of bra, maternity camisole and maternity shirt to wear to work to not show nipple action all day. I’ve found that just putting those annoying breast pads (usually for leakage) in the bra do help cut this down a little bit.
But, when you’re struggling to find something that’s work appropriate and actually fits to head to your professional place of work in the morning, it’s a big additional pain in the ass to try to figure out how to dress down your nipples.

On top of all this, your boobs may also turn blue. Yes, as in the color blue. Veins appear and your boobs will look like bad blue roadmaps. This, in addition to the growing belly and stretch marks can make for a beautiful pregnancy woman, but not a very attractive feeling one. I am considering removing one or two of the light bulbs in our bathroom. I think that may help.

Acid reflux/lactose intolerance

Yes, Lo had heartburn, so she gets the acid reflux thing. I have moved onto a prescription, but I seem to have the ability to “test” said prescription from time to time. I was lactose intolerant when I was a kid. I really haven’t had much issue with it in my adult life. And I really drank a lot of skim milk growing up, so I’m used to drinking milk on a daily basis.

Not the best idea any more. As I’ve said in previous posts, I can have my hot sauce on an egg sandwich in the morning and a full Mexican meal with extra jalapenos for lunch with no stomach or reflux issues at all. If I have a piece of chocolate cake and a small glass of milk in the afternoon, I’m screwed.

It’s a terrible feeling to have this “stuff” that always sitting between your throat and your, I don’t know, diaphragm? Or just feeling like you need to let small burps out all afternoon – especially while you are sitting in business or client meetings. Sometimes, it gets even better and makes you let out this noise that sounds like an injured seal or makes you throw up just a little. It’s totally awesome and uncontrollable.

And I shouldn’t necessarily blame it all on milk products. Acid reflux during pregnancy can be brought on by simply drinking water at the wrong time.

Heat

Another issue Lo didn’t really have. She’s cold all the time anyway. The other night, she really wanted to turn the heat on for the first time in probably 5 months. I begged her not to. As I got ready for bed, I opened the windows, turned the overhead fan on and put on my flimsiest T-shirt and a pair of boxers. She appeared in the doorway in sweatpants and a sweatshirt.

I am always warm. The extra body heat may eventually cause me to burst into flames. For the most part, I’m really able to handle it. Now that it’s cooling down in the Northeast, I can open my window at work and have full and total control of the temperature in my car to and from work. I also have my own A/C/heating unit in my office at work. I have a feeling that I will be blasting the A/C in my office in a few weeks. I did promise my secretary that I will close my door when I start doing this so she doesn’t freeze her ass off.

It becomes more of a problem when you don’t have any control over the heat situation. Last week, I was at a meeting with a few clients. We were in a small office at the client’s building, 3 men in a room with me, door closed, on the phone with an adverse party and their attorney. I was supposed to do most of the talking and negotiating. I swear it was 97 degrees in the room. I felt like I was having a hot flash, plus I had to pee (even though I made sure I went 2 minutes prior to the meeting). It was so bad, I almost couldn’t focus at all. I think I pulled it off, but after I hit the bathroom, I had to walk around outside in the 50 degree weather to get my body temperature down.

Peeing

Oh yes, we all really know about this. You have to pee constantly, yadda yadda yadda. But not only that, you have to pee suddenly. All it takes is one little baby foot or elbow or whatever to just land on your bladder for one second and you have to pee right then and there.

And don’t be mistaken, it really doesn’t matter if there is anything in your bladder or not. You may all of a sudden realize that you can’t wait 1 more minute and you rush to the bathroom. On your way to the bathroom, you realize that you just peed 5 minutes ago. It doesn’t matter, you have to go. You get there, sit down and ……nothing. Nothing is coming out. Why? Because your bladder is really bone dry, it’s just the baby poking at it trying to make you think you have to pee. But, while you’re there, might as well try to pee with all your might. You’ll have to go again (or think you have to go again) in about 12 minutes anyway.

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Anyway, that’s my list for now. I’m sure there will be many more as things now progress into the final countdown.

8 weeks left. This is the time that things start just growing faster and the body feels like it’s been hit harder and harder, right?

At least, that’s what my girlfriends tell me.

How crazy is it that they do school pictures at day care with one of those pricey school photo companies?

We, of course, are suckers and succumbed to the whole thing.

I am justifying showing a scan here since it’s not great quality and I’ll still be buying whatever copies I need from the photo company.

Here is our little man Shmoo at 2.5 years old.

I owe everyone an update on all our other goings on and I will do so shortly. It’s been a little crazy all around lately and I’m really finding that “don’t stress out the pregnant lady” pleas hold no water whatsoever.

Will update soon! Just wanted to post some little boy cuteness in the meantime!

You guys are way too kind with the “you look great” stuff! lol! I feel like I don’t look so great.

I just had a conversation with a senior manager about my maternity leave. We get 8 weeks paid leave which is what I told her I will most likely take. However, Lo seems to think I will be taking 12-14 weeks. hmmm. I guess I’ll play it by ear. The good thing is that I get 4 weeks vacation per year. I’ll have 3 weeks left for 2009 and once 2010 comes, I’ll have another 4 weeks. So, realistically I could take 14 weeks. I know I’m not going to want to come back to work at all, but I also work in a field that while it advertises itself on being “family friendly”, let’s be honest, the more time you take off for a pregnancy, the further down on the partner track ladder you fall.

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Here’s another photo montage from the last few weeks. I’m very behind on this updating stuff.

The Shmoo has a new friend in the neighborhood (“Ant”). Ant is 5 and graciously let Shmoo test out his new wheels. Of course, Shmoo will usually only drive, he does not like to be a passenger.

One of the things (one of the very few things) that we like about our current housing situation is the neighborhood. Shmoo definitely has a lot of kids to play with. I know we can’t move out of the condo anytime soon but Lo continuously reminds me of how wonderful it is to have a neighborhood of kids, even though we’ve lost $40,000 on our place and the neighborhood outside of the condo complex is just getting worser and worser.

Here is a glimpse of what our condo parking area may look like on any given night in the summer.

We also have discovered that Shmoo has the same reaction to mosquito bites as Lo. Instead of tiny little somewhat itchy bites like I get, the Shmoo gets these crazy welts that end up being about 4 inches in diameter. He got a bite near his eyebrow last week and his eye was almost swollen shut.

A few days that Shmoo was at his Mema and Pop-pop’s house in recent weeks, a wayward peacock came to visit. It was cute, friendly and fun at first and Shmoo got a kick out of feeding it bread. The peacock overstayed his welcome just a little when he started dropping feathers all over the place and pooping all over Pop-pop’s deck. Eventually, Pop-pop and the Shmoo chased it away by running after it and yelling “go-way P-cot – go way”.

Lastly, Shmoo has had his share of amusement parks recently. Lo took him to Six.Flags.Great.Adventure on a Friday night since she was playing chaperone to her niece and one of the girls for some concert at the park. He also got to go to a little amusement park in CT with Kaden and his Mema and Pop-pop too. This kid has it rough, doesn’t he??

Sesame.Place was a ton of fun and I highly recommend it. It is not too far from Downtown Philadelphia, which is nice if you want to take a family trip and spend a few days sightseeing, visiting the aquarium, the please.touch museum for kids, etc. And getting a pretty damn good cheesesteak at Cosni’s, Geno’s or Pat’s. It’s fun but it’s not a park you can spend more than 2 full days at like Disney, it’s not a huge park.

We definitely learned a lot. We totally scored on the hotel stay, took the shuttle from the hotel instead of paying for parking, got the VIP passes to meet the characters, went at the right time of year and basically scored with the weather. Saturday threatened rain all day, so we had the park almost entirely to ourselves. After the naptime (in which it rained while we were back at the hotel), we went back and REALLY had the place to ourselves. The Shmoo got to ride the “Blast Off” free fall ride 6 times in a row without having to get off!

I’m tired and found the trip a little exhausting. I do wish we had a little quiet intimate getaway before the baby comes…we’ll see.

As for the pregnancy, things are ok. I’m definitely starting to feel more pregnant every day. I still haven’t started prenatal yoga, so I guess I can’t complain about that crotch pain that I have when I’ve been sitting at my desk for a while. I feel like when I stand up, I do something between a waddle and a limp for a few minutes until my body returns to normal.

Here is my incredibly feeble attempt to take a picture of myself with the timer – it’s fuzzy. This was me before work one day last week. Here I am at 29 weeks! I think I really don’t look pregnant at all. Next belly shot, I promise to take sideways.

Work has been busy and stressful lately. It’s really not helpful that my brain wants to do everything but focus on work. I figure that I will need to start thinking about maternity leave and giving out a ton of my files. Cleaning my office will happen at the same time. ugh. Maybe I’ll take some before and after pictures of that chaos.